BEYOND NORTHERN IRAQ: mail2bni@yahoo.co.uk

Thursday, November 25, 2004

I've written before about the little luxuries that make all the difference for foreign correspondents far from home.

As I pack my bags for tomorrow's journey to the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World there'll be a bottle of rum (to be added to the Christmas cake) and a block of parmesan in my suitcase for a certain East Africa correspondent.

The report, which looks at the progress made since the signing of the Ottawa treaty five years ago, has some positive conclusions. Since the treaty took effect, use of the weapon around the world has fallen dramatically, global funding for mine action programs has increased more than 80%, more than 1,100 square kilometers of land has been cleared, and the number of new mine victims each year has decreased markedly.

Even so, many challenges remain -- to convince hold-out governments to come on board, to ensure effective implementation of and compliance with the treaty, to get mines out of the ground within the ten-year deadline, and to provide adequate assistance to landmine victims.

Landmine Monitor is the definitive study of the landmine problem worldwide. It'll form the basis for discussion at the Nairobi Summit On a Mine-Free World, which I'll be attending for the BBC in just over a week's time.

A landmark in amputee acceptance or a sick piece of exploitation? -- I'll let you be the judge.

The New York Daily News reports that Jennifer Krum, a 25-year old arm amputee from Pennsylvania, is to strip off for Playboy.

Krum, who lost her forearm in a car accident at the age of 5, came to Hugh Heffner's attention after being crowned Miss Amputee 2004 by shock-jock Howard Stern.

"I'm doing it mainly because I want to send the message to people who are amputees, or have issues with confidence or don't find themselves attractive or sexy - that you can be attractive or sexy, even if you're an amputee," Krum insists, not altogether convincingly.

If anyone from Playgirl is reading, my agent is standing by the phones.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Several colleagues had met and interviewed her during visits to Iraq and spoke of her dedication, humanity and bravery.

I hesitate to call her killing a "new low" as there have been so many disgusting acts of brutality -- but to shoot at point blank range a woman who has devoted her entire adult life to improving the lives of ordinary Iraqis is repugnant beyond words.

During conversations with colleagues one sentiment kept recurring -- "thank God she was shot and not beheaded."

It's an indication of how desensitised we're becoming to unimaginable brutality that a single gunshot to head can be regarded as "better" or "more merciful" than a knife to the throat.

Depressingly but unsurprisingly, the final official report into a military assault on the Palestine Hotel in April last year, which killed the journalists José Couso and Taras Protsyuk, has concluded that "no fault or negligence" can be attributed to the US army (Source: Reporters Sans Frontieres)

Troops from the Alpha 4-64 Armor Company fired into the hotel even though anyone with even the most basic knowledge of Baghdad knew the place was stuffed with western journalists.

However, it seems no one in the military chain of command thought to tell the grunts with their fingers on the trigger.

The media roll-out of the 2004 Landmine Monitor -- the most comprehensive overview of the landmine situation worldwide -- is underway, with press launches in Cambodia, Mozambique and Belgium.

Landmine Monitor is embargoed until tomorrow morning, after which it'll be available for download here.

The report will conclude that there were more than 8,000 reported incidents of deaths or injuries caused by mines last year, down slightly on 2002. It will also say that up to 20,000 more people could have become victims over the last year because so many cases go unreported.

It will call on more countries to ratify the Ottawa Treaty and on governments to provide more aid to victims.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Within the BBC, there's currently some debate and head-scratching taking place over whether employees should be allowed to keep personal blogs -- and if so, whether policies need to be formulated to advise staff on what they should and should not talk about in the public domain.

It's obviously an area of some interest to me -- although I'm glad to say that the approach so far has been marked by dialogue and consultation rather than confrontation.

There's no sign that I'm going to be silenced just yet.

It's interesting, therefore, to see how NBC reacted to last night's genuine scoop by its correspondent Kevin Sites -- who's also a blogger.

Sites and I both blogged from Northern Iraq during the war last year, earning ourselves the "war blogger" tag -- although thankfully he emerged from the conflict unscathed.

It's the clearest sign yet that some broadcasters are beginning to understand and even embrace blogging by staffers -- even though what they write is beyond their editorial control.

As more and more mainstream news outlets experiment with blogs in various ways, perhaps some of the suspicion that journalists would "give away trade secrets" or keep all their best material back for their blogs is beginning to fade.

I hope blogs like mine and Kevin's have shown that personal websites by journalists need not trouble our paymasters unduly. Indeed, they very often enhance and enrich the work we produce in our day jobs by providing a "rough draft" we can feed into the polished pieces that make it onto the air or into print.

NBC's response to Kevin's exclusive is very different from that of his former employer, CNN, which asked him to shut down his blog during last year's war. Long may it continue.

The Marine then apparently raises his rifle and fires into the man's head.

The timing could not be worse for the US military. Amnesty International has just warned that "the rules of war protecting civilians and combatants have been violated in the current fighting in Falluja."

When I was in Canada last week, the newspapers there were full of stories predicting an exodus from south of the border, as hordes of Americans put off by the idea of four more years of a Bush White House looked to trade Mississippi for Manitoba.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

As I was flying over the Atlantic, crossing timezones from darkness to dawn, Yasser Arafat was heading in the opposite direction, finally slipping into the night.

I heard about his death on the radio in the taxi from the airport. A BBC team was already on its way to Cairo, which meant I thankfully didn't have to turn back around and catch another plane.

Some will be mourning the death of a great symbol of resistance. Others will be rejoicing at the passing of a terrorist.

Either way, with Arafat finally gone there is a short window of opportunity for progress in the stalled Middle East peace process. Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qureia are acceptable to Israel and the United States and -- freed from Arafat's interference -- they could potentially bring closer the day when their predecessor's dream of a Palestinian state becomes a reality.

But Hamas has already vowed to continue its jihad against Israel. Continued violence in the West Bank and Gaza and a protracted power struggle within the Palestinian Authority would give Ariel Sharon justifiable reason not to reopen negotiations.

It's finally over -- and at least John Kerry acted with dignity and honour by pulling the plug straight away rather than dragging out the process. To do so would have tortured his supporters and -- more importantly for me -- us journalists further with futile legal challenges.

I've got a hundred and one reflections from election night, but am just too tired to discuss them all.

Some of the most important:

* Exit polls. Utterly useless. Bloggers have already taken plenty of heat for publishing the exit poll data. (I saw all the data but chose not to publish it because of its perceived unreliability -- although I referred to it with a strong health warning.) I'm rarely one to stand up for the "bloggers are journalists" credo but on this occasion I don't think they're the ones at fault. It's the pollsters who produced the bogus data that should be criticised -- not the bloggers (although some of the more prominent bloggers really need to take a reality check and stop believing their own hype. Just because you've can surf the net and post links doesn't make you a political commentator.) More on blogs and the exit polls here and here.)

* Don't believe conventional wisdom. Record turnout and a big youth vote were touted as potential tipping points for Kerry. But many other Republican advantanges (such as among married, suburban voters and white Protestants) cancelled these out.

* It's gonna get bumpy. For the last four years, the anti-Bush campaign has claimed the moral high ground after the controversies of 2000. No longer. With a popular vote majority of more than 3.5 million an energised Bush can justly claim that America has spoken. He now has the mandate he's lacked so far and can do damn well anything he pleases (as the leader in this morning's Guardian notes.)

* Look to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice, William Rehnquist's health is fading and other vacancies on the bench are imminent. A conservative court would complete the takeover of all three arms of American government.

Last night, America changed forever - and I've received many e-mails over the last 24 hours asking what it felt like to be present as history was made.

I'll tell you.

I watched history being made in an unbearably stuffy makeshift press tent, surrounded by pizza boxes and empty coke bottles. The choking air was thick with the stench of stale piss wafting in from the portaloos outside.

It's now looking increasingly unlikely that President Bush will come over here to the Reagan Centre because of the continuing uncertainty.

If he's going to come -- he'd better make it soon. The crowds are thinning out and if there's a late change of heart the President could find himself addressing half a dozen pissed Republican activists and the cleaning crew.

A few moments ago I saw the country and western band which entertained the party faithful here earlier in the night ferry its equipment out of the building.

But this night's certainly not over yet -- and the revellers here at the Reagan Centre just don't know whether to continue celebrating or head home, get some sleep, and wait for the picture to become clearer.

President Bush is over at the White House -- the question here is whether he'll come over to the Reagan Centre and issue a holding statement to the effect that "it's looking good for us but it's not over yet" or keep his head down until the fog of Ohio lifts.

It's all starting to feel like 2000 all over again, with John Kerry refusing to concede and the rising possibility of no official winner for days or even weeks.

The first wave of exit polls make extremely positive reading for John Kerry, with the Democratic challenger ahead of George W Bush in a number of key battleground states -- including Florida (by 3 percentage points) and Ohio (by 4 percentage points.)

Note that these first wave polls are extremely provisional and should be treated with a great deal of caution. They are in no way indicative of how the final result will shape up.

Pick of the goodies on offer in the press catering tent -- raspberry jam cookies decorated with the GOP logo.

My press pass for the evening's event is still predicting "Victory 2004" for Bush -- but the buzz here among the press, based on the first wave of polling data, is swinging towards Kerry in some key states.

But the fact is that no-one can say with any degree of certainty who's going to win -- not the pollsters, not the party officials, not the journalists...and certainly not me.

Anecdotal evidence suggests Kerry has gained some last-minute momentum -- and some of the analysts I've been talking to today are beginning to talk more confidently of a Kerry win. Certainly, Gallup and Fox News polls have shown movement toward Kerry and are now suggesting a dead heat. But in every poll the gap is within the margin of error, making it impossible to draw any firm conclusions.

Frankly, you can slice and dice the numbers any way you like in order to put forward a plausible explanation as to why either candidate is going to win.

Real Clear Politics, an excellent source of number-crunching data, has the outcome hanging in the balance.

Only one thing is certain. Whether that Bush rally I'll be attending tomorrow evening really will be celebrating "Victory 2004" is anyone's guess.

My only firm prediction? Ralph Nader's definitely not going to be the next president.